


Fishbowl

by Shamaru



Category: Cuphead (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 05:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13182984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shamaru/pseuds/Shamaru
Summary: "Once a day, take a trip down to the lake at the edge of the forest and toss a gold coin into the water. Do this for seven days. On the eighth day, toss your coin then toss a net. You'll get what you're looking for then."





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not super apparent yet, but King Dice is a demon summoner/witch in this fic. This will come about in later chapters.

As usual, they meet once a month. King gives a list of his accomplishments and failures while his companion gives him new tasks to complete before next they meet and takes compensation for the failures. It’s been this way for years and both have fallen into an easy routine.

This time his price had been low, with only one failure to report, and King knew he could make a quick deal to satisfy the other. He’d had something in mind for quite a while now and this felt like the right time to chase the thought.

“You want something.” 

King almost jumped in surprise when his companion spoke. Sometimes he felt like the other could read his mind, though he knew that wasn’t true. If that was the case then his life may have turned out vastly different than it had.

“...I do.” he finally responded. “I was just trying to decide how exactly to bring it up.”

Silence hung heavy between them while one tried to wrangle his thoughts and the other waited. He needed to watch how he worded his wishes lest they end up twisted and he be given something he wasn’t prepared to receive. Eventually he figured he had what he wanted in mind.

“I desire a companion.” he stated simply. When the other raised a hand to snap his fingers, King raised a hand of his own and shook his head. “Not one of your minions.” he added, “I want someone who will know me only with time and who won’t judge me based on your knowledge. Someone who I can depend on to help fill the silence and who may help me in my tasks.”

“You want someone like you? I’ve always got my mirror you know.” the other said with a grin. That grin dropped quickly when King shook his head. 

“I want someone unlike myself. Someone with a personality all their own. 

“So you’re askin’ me to basically conjure up a new entity and make sure they stay with you without my magic? That’s gonna have a hefty price, Dice.”

“As long as I get what I’m asking, you know I’ll pay.”

The demon before him grinned and wrung his clawed hands together with glee. “I want no less than two souls by the next month.”

“Then you’ll have them.”

“If I don’t, then I’ll take your companion as payment.”

King, a slight impatience growing now that his goal was in sight, nodded quickly. “You’ll have your souls, don’t worry. I will deliver.”

“Good.” The demon chuckled, low and menacing, and closed his eyes for a brief period of time. When he looked up to King again, his eyes had gone perfectly white and a slight glow reflected from them. 

“Once a day, take a trip down to the lake at the edge of the forest and toss a gold coin into the water. Do this for seven days. On the eighth day, toss your coin then toss a net. You’ll get what you’re looking for then.”

King had had a few deals that had him doing strange things, but gaining a companion from fishing with gold coins was one of the strangest. Was he meant to save someone from drowning this way or was someone meant to notice his odd behaviors and come to speak with him? Either way if he got what he wanted out of this then he wouldn’t care how he and the other were meant to meet.

“Remeber, Dice,” the demon’s voice brought him back to reality, “two souls by our next month’s meeting or you’ll lose that which you’ll gain.”

And with that, and a cloud of dark smoke, the demon vanished. King was left on his own again to prepare and to plan trips to neighboring towns. He had souls to collect and the need to make room for whoever would soon be welcomed into his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely love mermaid AUs and wanted to take a crack at one. 
> 
> This will likely not be the only Cuphead mermaid AU I write.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which King Dice goes through his eight days and meets his new companion.

On the morning of the first day, King almost rushed to the lake’s edge and hastily tossed his coin into the dark waters. He waited to see if anything would happen, but when nothing did he turned back for home. The rest of the day was spent rearranging his home to accommodate another person and making a list of things he would need to purchase.

The second day went much the same with a rushed trip to the lake, a coin toss, and waiting for a bit longer than the first day. Nothing appeared to happen again and so King turned away once more. This time he made his way into the local village, his list in hand, and picked up the goods he needed. There would be no looking for souls here. The place of his birth was the only place he would spare.

On the third day’s trip, King brought a packed basket with him and spent the day by the water after tossing his coin. He used the day to rest after having to haul heavy furniture home and to think about what his new companion might end up like. He fell asleep to the sound of the waves gently lapping at the shore and the few songbirds who sang nearby in the trees.

The fourth and fifth day went without event. Coins were tossed in the morning and King spent the two days mixing potions to save the life of a man’s dying sister in a neighboring land. For his time and his mixtures he was given the soul of the sister’s husband. He’d been told that the soul was wicked and that was why the man’s sister was dying in the first place. King hadn’t cared for the details. It was just a soul to him and half of his deal was fulfilled.

The sixth day was spend much like the third. King brought a coin and a basket with him to the lake and slept beneath the shade of a large tree.

The seventh day filled him with excitement. His coin disappeared into the lake and King found himself scanning the area with a hope of spotting someone watching him. Perhaps he really was meant to save someone’s life with the next day. That would paint him in a good light for a first meeting and the idea began to grow on him. That night, sleep eluded him. There was too much excitement for what was to come to let him catch any rest.

On the morning of the eighth day, King prepared himself. He checked thrice for the coin in his pocket, needing to make sure it stayed there, and checked his net meticulously for holes. With everything going perfectly, he set out for the lake. 

He perched himself in the same spot as always and pulled the coin from his pocket, smiling at the chunk of gold and even giving it a quick kiss for luck. Then he tossed it into the water, waited for a moment, and tossed out his net. The net quickly spread and blanketed the water above his tossed coin then began to sink, disappearing beneath the dark waves. In his hands King held the rope attached to the fishing gear and slowly fed the loop between his fingers to allow the net to sink further. It took minutes before the line went slack in his hands, signaling the weights hitting the lake bed, and King waited patiently.

Mere moments later he had to grip the rope as it suddenly pulled across his palms and his smile widened in excited joy. The net jerked in the water and as the die began to pull on the rope he felt the resistance and began to laugh aloud. Soon the top of the net could be seen peeking above the waves and the pull grew stronger, whatever had been caught seeming to grow desperate. When half of the net was pulled up King caught a flash of bright red on white and his smile turned down a bit. Had he caught just a fish? He paused in pulling the rope and watched the net closely. Sure enough, a flash of white peeked out of the water again in the unmistakable shape of a fish’s tail. It was a huge fin, but a fish had not been what King had been after.

For a moment he grew angry. Had he not been specific enough in his deal? Had the demon tricked him for a laugh? Two souls for a fish? King almost let go of the net in his anger. Then he paused again and began to think rationally.

He’d done strange things for simple rewards before. He’d once had to learn snake charming in order to retrieve a diamond ring from the neck of a cobra and that was to trade for a single ruby. If there was one thing he’d learned from making deals with his demon it was that the creature loved to make him jump through hoops for what he wanted. So perhaps this fish was what would gain him the companion he sought after. With that thought in mind, King’s determination returned and he began to haul the net in closer to the shore.

As his catch came into view King saw that the body was bigger than any fish he’d ever seen and its scales were as white as snow with stripes of bright red lacing down its back. What confused him, however, was the noise he began to hear the more he tugged on the rope. It sounded like muffled screaming. Yet there was no one nearby. With one last hard pull, the net came free from the water and King realized two things at once.

One, he had been hearing screaming and it had been coming from the fish in his net. And two, he hadn’t caught just any old fish.

He’d just hauled in a mermaid.

The shock of his catch almost made him drop the net back into the water, but somehow he managed to hold onto it despite the thrashing and got a good look at the creature. A fish’s tail attached to a slim humanoid body with a cup for a head complete with a red and white striped straw swirling within. King wondered how it managed to stay in there. 

“Hey, hey, calm down. I’m not goin’ to hurt you.” King spoke softly, as he would to a spooked animal, in an effort to calm the strange little mercup. 

While his words did seem to have the desired effect on the creature, the mercup continued to squirm. Surely this wasn’t what the demon had in mind for King’s companion? Could this little creature even speak? On that note King groaned. He’d only asked for someone to help _fill the silence_. Screaming would fill the silence as much as talking.

“L-Let me go!”

Despite the piercing volume, King thanked the stars that the mer had an actual voice.

He smiled easily and began to wind the rope from the net around one hand so that it no longer dragged on the ground. ”Let you go?” he repeated back, “’fraid I can’t do that.”

When the thrashing and screaming started up again, King wondered if keeping his new companion would be worth the obvious difficulties he would be faced with. He figured if it became too much he could always dump the mercup back into the lake to be rid of him. Or he could let the demon take him once they met again. 

His problems would sort themselves out one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters right off the bat because I wrote them both today!
> 
> I know they're both pretty short and the pacing may be a bit quick, but I've got more plot after these two meet so the next chapters should have more to them. Hope y'all are enjoying so far though!
> 
> And to those waiting for an update on Discussions Over Drinks: I am working on the next chapter and it should be posted soon. I've had to rewrite it so many times because I'm just not happy with how it keeps coming out. But I think I finally have it the way I want it so now I just need to finish it up.


End file.
